
5/3 




\ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




AN APPEAL ^'^^' 



E 513 
.U94 
Copy 1 



FOR RECTITUDE 



IN PRIMARY POLITICS. 



BY MOUNTAINEER. 



rj Diseases, desperate grown, 

By desperate appliances are relieved, 
Or not at all. — Shakespeare. 

, first pure, then peaceable, — 



Provide things honest in the sight of all men. — The Bible. 






i BOSTON. 
ALFRED MUDGE & SON, PRINTERS, 34 SCHOOL ST. 
186 3. 









Entered according to Act of Congress, in the j'ear one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, 

BY CHARLES WRIGHT, 

In the District Court of the United States, for the District of Massachusetts. 



XI \ J & 



AN APPEAL. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



From the Springfield Republican,, Nov. 7, 1862. 

Representative District No. 4, ^ 
Hinsdale, November 5, 1862. V 

To the Editor of The Republican: Our district has acquired the bad dis- 
tinction of the <' bolting district." Five elections of the six held since it was 
formed, have been grossly dishonorable in their events, both to leading individ- 
uals and to portions of the people; only one has been without a bolt and a 
turmoil. Two of the bolts were provoked by rank injustice. Three of them 
were unprovoked, selfish and shameful ; and were marked by alliances with our 
political enemies. Such a bolt, is the one we have just experienced ; and Jarvis 
Rockwell, Esq., has triumphed by it. He is a lawyer in Hinsdale. 

These proceedings have become almost intolerable ; many people have been 
swindled by them, and all have been wronged. Honor is trampled on and 
become a scoffing ; and our political morality — where is it? Echo answers. 

I write this note as a protest for the moment. We should try to stop these 
transactions. I intend to recur to them at no distant day, and to exhibit them 
freely for the common good. The honest, I apprehend, will make no objection ; 
and we may forego the favor of the dishonest in an effort to serve the public 
morals. C. W. 



Hinsdale, Dec. 24, 1862. 
Fellow Citizens of the District : 

If I were not well convinced that the safety of public 
affairs lies mainly in the public morals, and that the people, in 
their morality, even among us, develope phases of degeneracy 
and peril ; if I were not now beholding a Great Republic tot- 
tering on towards ruin from the disorders of vice and crime, I 



might turn from the bold indecencies of the petty politicians 
among ourselves, and pass along from jcnv to year, as hereto- 
fore, silent ai)d ashamed. But a due regard to the relation of 
things forbids peace and demands action. Somebody must 
speak, and charity begins at home. You will not, I hope, deem 
me too assuming as I stand up before you in defence of the 
common cause. I am not deficient in years, and have been 
much among you from my youth. TelJ me, then, have I shrunk 
from duty in the relations of the public good ? Have I ever 
betrayed you in your grandest interests — the public knowl- 
edge, the public morals ? If I have not, then you will not call 
me immodest in speaking, especially as my head is gray ; and 
as I have never trenched on your treasures nor on your public 
honors. I may hope to be heard. 

And on turning to hear me, you will demand the truth, in 
justice and for the cause. You will never ask me to withhold 
it in defference to the vicious, especially if they stand high 
among us. It were cowardly to attack the weak in vice and 
to let the strong go free. We could pardon a woman, while 
we punish a man. Her we may influence in gentleness, while 
we subdue him to decency. If he will not listen to remon- 
strance he may be lashed to duty. The spirit of freedom for- 
bids that we should allow the recklessly ambitious to run 
rampant against the public morals, or to corrupt our govern- 
ment through its laws and politics with impunity. We must 
confront and oppose them. The war exists and we must fight. 
The time of universal good will is sure to come, but is not yet. 
Meanwhile we must have laws — the lower law and the higher, 
the written and the unwritten — and we must obey them or be 
punished. Immunity to the guilty is a great wrong to the pub- 
lic. Our governments are too lax. Even the highest Executive 
— thank Heaven for his integrity — is all too indulgent. He 
wounds the nation through his kindness to men ; until, bleeding 
as a people, we become faint, and pass tottering along as if 
ready to fall. Was Cameron decapitated? He was sent 



abroad in a ministry of the highest honor, walked over Europe 
proudly as if all unblotchcd, and returns to the republic for a 
further triumph. He would serve us in the Senate. What 
ought to follow but public ruin when bad men are sustained 
steadily ? And what but disaster when inefficiency and delay 
for month on month unnerve power and stay the sword ? As 
we would reduce rebellion we should depose vice. To accom- 
plish either requires effort. Inertia is decay and ruin. The 
supreme law is the common good. It demands action. 

Moreover, the individual, in his just associations, has a right 
to the practice of integrity. He owes that practice to his 
associates is action ; and his associates owe it to him and to all. 
Should he prove dishonest, he may be duly punished. If his 
companions betray him, he has a right to be indignant. He is 
not required to stand by, year after year, the victim of bad 
faith in his bounden associates, always unresisting and meek. 
No such tamoness, pusillanimous and abject, is due from 
the American freeman. In a republic the people are the con- 
servators of the right. It is their privilege and duty to main- 
tain integrity. In all its relations to the common good; they 
are, one and all, to defend and maintain it. 

Conceding the justness of sentiments like these, you will per- 
mit in the connection a presentation of facts involving your 
political welfare and name. 

On the morning of the fifth of November last the Springfield 
Republican, in its uniform efficiency, announced the result of the 
election of the fourth. Success was secured by citizen Rock- 
well in our district canvass for the General Court. He was 
announced as a ''bolting republican." He had secured a 
triumph by the aid of the democrats, through the fifth bolt 
endured by the district in five successive years. 

On the morning of the third, this Mr. Ro3kwell, the only law- 
yer in all our district — Jarvis Rockwell, Esq., of Hinsdale — 
having procured the necessary bolting tickets — devised for him- 
self as the bolting candidate — proceeded to Becket and duly 



arranged for their presentation at the polls on the fourth. They 
were passed accordingly. He secured, moreover, an important 
conference with a leading democrat of the place. On the pre- 
vious Saturday, November first, he, with an associate, also a 
republican — Theodore Barrows, Esq. — appeared in Pittsfield, at 
the office of the Eagle; and, in the absence of the leading editor 
and proprietor, obtained the printing of a bolting ticket, headed 
as a rcjmhlican ticket. He procured the insertion of his own 
name on this same ticket, nominally republican, in place of the 
name of Charles A. Converse, who was the real republican can- 
didate. To this essential matter in detail, manifestly important 
to him as a bolter, he applied his attention personally and 
alone ; save and except as he held the aid of the aforesaid Theo- 
dore Barrows, Esq., who is a Justice of the Peace among us. 
Mr. Rockwell paid the printer. 

On the Tuesday previous, October twenty-eighth, our repub- 
lican district convention was held. Of the votes of the dele- 
gates, in all twenty -four, four only were given for him. Of 
those, but two were of his own town, which had six representa- 
tives present. On the second balloting a nomination was made. 
A majority sustained Mr. Converse. He was declared unani- 
mously nominated. An undoubted republican, intelligent and 
moral, he gave no cause for a bolt. But in political affairs, 
" success is a duty;" not fidelity, not integrity, not a high toned 
honor. The sovereign deity is Self; and Mr. Rockwell bent in 
homage. Nor did he serve alone in these transactions. He 
had two laborious assistants. 

First, there appeared Mr. Charles J. Kittredge. He is a 
Trial Justice of Hinsdale ; and at this same time was the regular 
nominee of the People's party for the Senate. For years, among 
our democratic friends, he has served as a prominent leader. 
In 1857, nominated by them, he assumed the '' stump," and ^' lec- 
tured " abroad in the several towns in behalf of himself for the 
General Court. Since that time he has generally served in aid of 
republican bolters — always active, always vigilant, and uniformly 



a foe to the republican cause. In the present contest, the dem- 
ocratic strength was led as usual by him ; while our republi- 
can Justice, Theodore Barrows, a man of marked simplicity 
and zeal, and a free and familiar bolter, persuaded a portion of 
our republican strength from the cause of political integrity 
and order, to a personal cause, wholly impertinent, and purely 
selfish and shameful. In a ready assurance, vociferous and 
eager, he led tlie republican bolters. Messrs. Barrows and 
Kittredge were the leading men on whom Mr. Rockwell seemed 
to rely for the defeat of the republican nominee and the service 
of his own ambition. 

But neither of these gentlemen remained content with his 
special leadership alone. Both aspired to additional sway in 
the sphere of political manoeuvre. Mr. Barrows became a 
compound bolter. He denounced Mr. Jenks, our candidate for 
the Senate, supported the nominee of the People's party, zeal- 
ously distributing the republican ticket with the name of Mr. 
Kittredge carefully pasted over that of the true nominee. 

Mr. Kittredge's measures were of a broader import ; embrac- 
ing a no less sweeping purpose than the direction of the 
republican district convention ; — a direction, too, through the 
packing process by confidential action, and by a control in 
primary caucus. The attempt was a bold one ; especially in a 
democrat, who had no more right in the republican manage- 
ment than any other democrat in the district. Debauched as 
we are, through a past practice, there yet remained in the 
republican body enough of strength and political decency to 
resist and thwart the design. 

Mr. Kittredge issued the following call, against the advice of 
a leading democrat, who strongly opposed all sinuous tactics, 
and urged an open and positive policy, in the name of the 
People's party alone. His warrant for the call he found in 
his office of Town Committee in the "Union " party of 1861 ! 
It will be observed that he ignores therein the republican 
name, in both the town and district relation ; and also the state 



8 

administration. It could answer only for a People's party ; 
and yet it was designed to secure at the caucus the election of 
delegates to a repiblican convention ; delegates, too, as is well 
understood, who would cast their votes for Jarvis Rockwell, as 
a man opposed to Mr. Sumner. I copy from the original : 

" NOTICE. 

The legal voters of this town in favor of sustaining the present 
National Administration in the prosecution of the war, are requested 
to meet at Tuttle's Hall on Saturday evening, the 25th inst.,to choose 
delegates to attend the district convention to be held here on the 28th 
inst., to nominate a candidate to represent Dis. No. 4 in the next 
legislature. 

C. J. KiTTEEDGE, Town Committee.* 

Hinsdale, Oct. 23, 1862. 

Under the call of Mr. Kittredge, the republicans met a 
throng of democrats and mixed politicians, always their op- 
ponents — and eager now to select delegates to a republican 
district convention. They were friends of Mr. Rockwell. 
Messrs. Kittredge and Barrows were present, affording emi- 
nent aid. Against their persistent and strenuous efforts, the 
republicans at length dissolved the meeting, as wholly unsuit- 
able for republican action, organised anew as a republican 
caucus, and performed their legitimate work. Their opponents, 
defeated, retired in wrath, to meditate duly the bolting process 
in conjunction with the People's party. 

But these engagements of C. J. Kittredge, in the manoeuvre 
of republican affairs, have an earlier date than the aforesaid 
notice. The following letter to a leading republican in one of 
the towns in the district relates to the same convention ; — nor is 

* The text presents a strategical notice ; the following is open and above 
board. Both refer to the same convention : 

NOTICE. 

The Kepublican voters of Becket, and such others as are in favor of the 
present National and State Governments, are requested to meet at the Town 
Hall, in Becket, on Saturday, the 25th instant, at seven o'clock, p. m., to choose 
six delegates to meet the convention to be held at Hinsdale, for the purpose of 
nominating a candidate for liepresentative from District No. 4. 

A. M. Perkins, Committee for Becket. 

Becket, Oct. 22d, 1862. 



9 

this the only letter missive that appeared in the republican 
ranks, from the same assiduous source and for the same persua- 
sive aim. 

*' Office of the Plunkett Woolen Co. 

Confidential. 

Hinsdale, Mass , Oct. 15, 1862. 
Esq. 



Dear Sir : — I take the liberty to ask your views upon the 
re-election of Hon. Chas. Sumner to the U. S. Senate by the legisla- 
ture the coming winter ? If you think as I do, that we ought to 
have a more practical statesman to represent our state in Congress, I 
hope you will see that anti-Sumner delegates from your town be sent 
to the convention to be holden here on the 28th instant. 

Very truly yours, 

C. J. KiTTREDGE." 

Had C. J. Kittredge any right to presume that an honorable 
republican would confer " confidentially " with a political oppo- 
nent in relation to imcMng a republican convention ? It is safe 
to say that overtures of the kind, from an opposing party, can 
neither be made nor accepted in honor. They are not entitled 
to " confidence." 

Meanwhile, Mr. Rockwell, in these events, maintained a due 
suavity. Moreover, he was uniformly ingenious and wise. He 
once declared himself " unpledged ; " though this, perhaps, was 
said in ^' confidence." His recognized friends, democrats and 
republicans, maintained, respectively, that he was really against, 
and really yb?- the re-election of Mr. Sumner to the Senate. Our 
leading democrats were especially assured. To a leading 
republican, he urged as a reason in his own behalf, that no bolt 
would ensue if he were nominated; while — he remarked — 
should the republicans nominate some one else, a man of 
denfined position, it would be proper to anticipate a bolting 
candidate. And the result verified the prediction. At the 
critical juncture he appeared in the field, nominating himself, a 
republican bolter bound for success, without a constituency visi- 
bly organized, maintaining a position not unqualified, holding 
a direction dubious. 
2 



10 

*♦ On two iinequal crutches prop'ed, he came." 
" One eye was blinking, and one leg was lame." 

He secured the strength of our democratic friends. They 
thought he was with them. He secured a portion of the repub- 
lican body. They were equally sure of his aid. He secured a 
triumph. How he will vote on the Senatorial question, remains 
a matter of grave speculation. I have always thought he would 
vote for Sumner; and I must still believe he will blink the 
claims of his recent friends of the People's party. " Success " 
remains a ^' duty " still ; and if he cannot dodge, he may yet 
be seen in conjunction with the large republican majority. But 
in these conjectures it were easy to err. It is safe to forbear a 
prediction. I may properly add that this representative, who 
thus illustrates political integrity, is an educated man — liberally 
educated, — a graduate of Williams College, and a member of 
the Berkshire bar. And what of our work in this election ? 
Have we set forth an incipient statesman, perchance of the 
stamp of Banks, or of a Henry Wilson, or a Senator Simmons, 
or yet of a Simon Cameron ? — a winner, low and slippery ? It 
were well for us to review events ; and for him to accept a 
kindly warning. 

Such, gentlemen, are some of the incidents that mark your 
recent election. I have presented them briefly as significant 
incidents among a mass altogether too numerous for a full and 
free exhibition. And this is the fifth of the bolts endured, by 
this representative district, in five successive years. It is the 
third, moreover, that has presented the feature most repulsive 
to political honor, — an open alliance with an opposite party to 
secure a personal triumph. Only two of the bolts remained 
uninvolved in the baseness of such a betrayal. These two, 
though provoked by rank injustice, were not disgraced by a 
foreign alliance. They were affairs of the family ; and how- 
ever disgraceful in the primary causes, were still retained in 
the family precincts. I refer to the Washington bolt of 1860, 



I 



11 

and the one in Hinsdale of four years ago. They all illustrate 
our political morality. They were all successful but one ; and 
what is the result? A gross and shameful demoralization 
throughout the representative district. To bolt is the rule — 
regularity the exception. Success is in defiance of political 
morality. An unscrupulous selfishness dominates. The whole 
order of party is defective and weak; its productions corrupt; 
its result, debasement. And has this no relation to the public 
laws ? — to the public government ? — to the due maintenance of 
the republican form ? Can political corruption contaminate par- 
ties, debase legislatures and still maintain the affairs of State ? 
We ought to remember that party is a necessity among a 
free people ; as much a necessity as a legislative body ; because 
in a republic, opinion rules, and opinions differ in relation to 
measures and men. Hence the necessity of political integrity ; 
of upright parties and politics. From them proceed the legis- 
lative bodies, and the administration of public affairs. If 
parties are corrupt, so is the government. As we would 

CORRECT GOVERNMENT WE SHOULD REFORM PARTIES ; FOR POLI- 
TICS AND PARTY AND GOVERNMENT ARE INSEPARABLE."^ 

And we should begin at home ! We have heretofore failed 
in mere expedients. May we revert to Truth ? May we say 
to the delinquent, " Thou art the man ? " Am I, herein, too ex- 
plicit and personal ? Is a revelation of truth, in the conduct of 
men in public relations, for the public good, a fit and proper 
appeal ? If not, then what shall we do ? The evil remains in 
all its amplitude. The amount of chicanery, tergiversation, 
trickery, dishonor and shame involved in one of these annual 
scrambles for a seat in the General Court, no one but a worker 
in the political arena can properly appreciate or duly set forth. 

* The vices of politicians are adopted with the greatest facility. They com- 
port with the natural selfishness of men. <'But the politician's improve- 
ments"— I quote from no less authority than Dr. Johnson— "are opposed by 
every passion that can exclude conviction or suppress it; by ambition, by 
avarice, by hope, and by terrour, by public faction, and private animosity." 



12 

No one but a ready and voluminous writer would attempt their 
entire narration. Nay more. It is the fashion of the times to 
let them pass. Nay more. It is only in peril of political death 
that any one can duly reveal them. And why ? Because you 
are indifferent while the rogues are awake. You, as a whole, 
are quite too careless, quite too selfish to protect or uphold any 
man who dares point out the political parasite — portray the 
aspiring demagogue. You would hunt up a thief who had 
stolen your pig, — how many of you do as much for your poli- 
tics ? — as much for political integrity ? You permit politicians, 
year after year, once and again and again, to assume your prerog- 
atives for their own selfish ends. They swarm in positions of 
emolument and honor, in utter contempt of political honesty, — in 
imminent peril of our republican form. And you remain content ! 
As if these affairs were not your affairs ! No political outrage 
serves to arouse you. Political delinquents are not set aside, 
much less punished. They remain your aids in ostensible honor. 
In this very year in the town of Peru — and none of our towns 
surpass it in honesty — a republican caucus, duly constituted, elec- 
ted three republican delegates to act in our senatorial district 
convention. The whole delegation — men of intelligence — 
instead of going to the republican convention and serving in the 
republican cause, went into the convention of the People's party 
and served in nominating C. J. Kittredge in opposition to the 
republican candidate ! And no satisfaction is had. The lead- 
ing man in this delegation continues in impunity — dumb. His 
name is S. S. Bowen. And Peru is quiet. The means in this 
most strange transaction remain but partially known. 

But this is known. The assiduous C. J. Kittredge, Esq., 
was familiar with the movement in advance. He an- 
nounced it duly to another republican, of another town, whose 
aid he sought in the same relation. Nor is it impossible that, 
as a "means" in part, he "confidentially" assured some of 
these men that he himself was a '• good " republican. It is 
certain that he so averred of himself on one or two other occa- 



13 

sions. It is certain, too, that to a direct question, purposely 
put in the presence of a substantial citizen, he was fain to say, 
in fact, that he was not a republican. 

And more is known. Messrs. Kittredge and Bowen were 
familiar allies in the events of the previous year. This same 
Mr. Bowen was then a candidate — up as a bolter — for Bos- 
ton ; and the records of the state bear his name as our repre- 
sentative in the General Court. The demure and amiable 
Bowen ! To secure the desirable end, he assumed the bolter's 
name and place against his political friend and neighbor, Ben- 
jamin F. Pierce, Esq., who was fairly presented as the town 
nominee, (in the rotation system, by the rule then recognised,) 
who was fairly nominated by the district convention ; and who, 
moreover, as the rightful candidate, received at the election the 
vote of his Peru fellow citizens. Still, Bowen was elected 
through the shameful defection of our political associates, who 
had entered our house and eaten our bread as " friends " in the 
'^ Union " movement. And C. J. Kittredge urged on this bolt 
in behalf of the ambitious Bowen ; who in the present year, as 
we have already seen, appeared in himself and his republican 
trusts, at the People's party convention to aid Mr. Kittredge to 
a seat in the Senate ! Surpassing fidelity ! Reciprocal honor ! 
Mr. Bowen remains in regular standing, a republican all unim- 
pugned, as if he were honest and true ! 

It were curious in the connection to prosecute the affair of 
the treachery to B. F. Pierce. Why was he ^^ knifed ? " Be- 
cause, forsooth, C. J. Kittredge and some others such, maintained 
that he was " too radical " a man. He was just as radical as 
the free soil republicans throughout the commonwealth — no 
more, no less — and he was the fair nominee of the " Union " 
party. 

But if he was too radical, what, pray tell us, of the Hon. 
Thomas F. Plunkett? A man of compromises, devoted to 
trade, always a democrat, always our foe, was he too highly 
conservative ? no I The free soil republicans, throughout 



14 



the district, could vote en masse for him, because he was a regu- 
lar candidate in the organized " union." And, yet, Mr. Pierce, 
in the same " union," was equally a regular candidate. Thomas 
F. Plunkett, adroit at chess, is no less adroit, in the political 
game. He has always held the ears of his friends. He should 
have held his henchmen. Our allies stabbed us in a shameful 
treachery. Benjamin F. Pierce was wronged. He is a man who 
deserves better things ; and contemptible, indeed, is the politi- 
cal practice that can serve in so base a betrayal of acknowl- 
edged ability and worth. He is now enrolled in the national 
army, a volunteer soldier ; moreover, a private ; where two of 
the Plunketts serve in command. Such is the triumph of worth 
among us. Such is the way of " success." 

Nor is this the whole of the house of Bo wen. The senior 
of the firm of W. S. & S. S. Bowen, a mercantile firm of Peru, 
served three years ago, a conspicuous bolter, in conjunction with 
the same Mr. Kittredge. They hove up our affairs in turmoil 
and shame, to defeat the fair nominee of the district, Andrew 
Jackson Babbitt, Esq.,^-a '' Harry of the Wynd " among us. 
They failed. The democrats of the rank, better organized 
then, refused to ratify the alliance. The bolters met with a 
melancholy fall. It was sad to behold them ; but in spite of 
our efforts they seized our contempt, though we freely and 
cheerfully gave them our pity. They rolled in the mud and 
loved to roll ! It was a case in the " bogus " practice. We had 
the bogus caucuses, the bogus delegations, and, I was about to 
add, the bogus piety, withall. They appealed to bigotry. 

Our friend, Mr. Babbitt, was somewhat given to the Univer- 
salist faith and name. " A Universalist, forsooth ! Heaven 
forefend I" was the language of our opponents' conduct. 
It was a heterodox ornat that some of our friends, were 
wholly unable to swallow, though they had all along com- 
passed the heterodox camels without any manifest strain. What 
pray tell us, is the religious orthodoxy of the Hon. Thomas F. 
Plunkett? He is reputed a man of physical affairs. And 



15 

surely men of the christian name, in political affairs, among 
themselves, may well recollect that we hold to a government, 
supreme in power, in whose constitution there is no recognition 
of God. " The Constitution as it is P^ We ought to hold a 
National Convention, if for no other purpose than to amend it 
in that very thing. It is but just to add, in this connection, 
that our political friends of religious orthodoxy — more espe- 
cially the gentlemen Kittredge and Bowen, who were among 
the loudest of Mr. Babbitt's denouncers — were among the 
leading immolators of Pierce, who is undoubtedly orthodox — 
having served as a Congregational deacon; a religious rela- 
tion, I may properly add, that Mr. Kittredge himself maintains. 
bounden brethren ! charitable churchmen ! And the out- 
side world, alas, how obdurate ! 

But further, briefly, of the ^' bogus " practice in the aforesaid 
memorable bolt. One body of delegates, full and strong, numer- 
ous enough to control the convention, had they been able to 
establish their seats, were of the amplest type in the bogus 
line — pure, unblushing, bald. They were privatelij chosen, in a 
packed caucus of minority men, who were sVdy assembled under 
calls that were secretly posted for the moment only (to secretly 
"answer the law "), and were then transferred and hidden ! And 
there were men in this, concocting and executing persistenly 
day after day, who had served in the State Legislature ! It 
were not unbecoming in this sort of men — surely not unbe- 
coming — when in session as law-makers at Boston, to accept 
donations in penknives, etc., through their beneficent friends, the 
doorkeepers, sergeants and clerks ; nor to persist in appropri- 
ating editions of statutes, through excessive contracts, in shame- 
ful selfishness, to themselves ; nor yet to manoeuvre in corrupt 
coalitions to promote the pojitical demagogue. And if we of 
Masssachusetts, reputed as moral, who ought to be second to 
none, elevate such men to political trusts, what may we antici- 
pate abroad ? The following statement is fully significant : 



16 

From the Albany Journal of the \Uh inst. 

Venal Congressmen. — Certain New York members of Congress 
are said to have been detected in receiving fees for procuring commis- 
sions in the army, in one case charging as high as four hundred dollars 
for their services in procuring a single commission of a low grade. — 
[^Cincinnati Gazette. 

We have heard similar rumors, and they point to Hon. Alfred Ely, 
Representative in Congress from the Monroe district in this State. A 
case like this is stated : A young gentleman from his district was an 
applicant for a position in the navy. The application was pressed for 
some time, but without apparent success, when Mr. Ely informed the 
young man that there was another applicant for the place, who could 
be bought off for $250. This amount was handed over to the mem- 
ber, and the commission was soon after secured. Subsequently, as 
the story goes, it was ascertained that there was not only no other 
applicant in the way, but that Mr. Ely had the commission in his 
pocket when he bargained for the $250 ! 

Several other cases, of a similar character, are being brought to 
light. 

One of Mr Ely's brokers, one Brown, of Rochester, is an appli- 
cant for Paymaster in the Navy. This position, requiring the highest 
integrity, is to be secured for the applicant, if possible, to reward him 
for his past services in behalf of this " venal Congressman." " Like 
master, like man," is an old adage ; and the community in which both 
"master" and "man" live, do them both injustice if either of them 
are proper persons to occupy the responsible position of Paymaster in 
the Navy. 

This Mr. Ely, as I am informed, secured his election to the 
National Congress by manoeuvres such as are common with us. 
"Do men gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles?" 
Can a man who is a knave at one stage of his progress be relied 
on as honest at another ? It is safe to say — I so regard it — 
that the legislatures, as a whole, throughout the land, are made 
up largely of men who are just as immoral, in one way or 
another, as is this Mr. Ely, of Rochester. And still the repub- 
lic lives ! 

Thus, gentlemen, are politicians permitted, in the utmost im- 
punity, to violate honor in the political relation as if it held no 
relation to law, no relation to government, no relation to war, 
dissolution, ruin. Our republican form is in the way of anarchy 
purely because the mass of the people, slack in morality, care- 
less in duty, wholly neglect our primary politics, as if the fraud 



17 

and dishonor, incipiently practiced, bore no significance in our 
imminent peril. If the fountains are poisoned, pray what of 
the stream ? It becomes a river of death. The nation drinks 
and fails. 

Finally, gentlemen, accept my thanks. I duly appreciate 
your patience. At a future day I may venture to address you 
in the same relation, should I have reason to suppose I can 
thereby serve in aid of political integrity. Let me say, for the 
present, that the men who hold your political trusts in deroga- 
tion of political honor, are not independent of popular action. 
Your voice may resound in tones of terror to their wholesome 
control, and in suitable warning to others. 

You may openly unite in demonstrative action. You may 
request Mr. Rockwell to resign his position for the public good, 
and to forego in the future all promotion of self through a self- 
pushing course, as clearly subversive of our republican form. 
This, moreover, would serve as a caution to his friend in ambi- 
tion, Mr. C. J. Kittredge ; whose vigorous efforts in the same 
relation have not yet secured a personal triumph. And what 
shall we say of Theodore Barrows — the always willing 
and wise ? It were enough, perhaps — and not impertinent — 
to inquire by what appliances he secured a Justice's com- 
mission. And it were pertinent also to ask ourselves if 
either Mr. Barrows or C. J. Kittredge are suitable men in our 
home judiciary. If they are not, then wherein is the remedy ? 
But the behavior of these men has some palliation in your 
own habitual neglect. A popular carelessness has kept back 
worth, and left open the way to a bold ambition, unscrupulous, 
faithless, immoral. And the evil is general. Since the domi- 
nation of " spoils," in the last thirty years, honest men remain 
more and more unknown, inexperienced in public affairs and 
remote from political promotion. Hence our political dishonor 
and shame. Hence the supremacy of "self" and the sway of 
" corruption " in all our public affairs. Hence the national 

peril. 

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From the whelming penalties of our political degeneracy we 
should arouse to political reform. The true restorative is in 
a popular vigilance, through a just political morality. It in- 
volves time. We ought to begin. In the favor of Heaven 
may the people awake to life in Truth and Duty. 

Nor let the faithful fail ! 

** Ye noble few ! who here imbending stand, 
Beneath life's pressure, yet bear up awhile. — " 



' Truth crushed to earth will rise again ; 
The eternal years of God are hers." 



MOUNTAINEER. 



LIBRARY OF l^^'^- ; 




013 703 172 3 . 



